In an era where digital connectivity is as essential as electricity, rural communities like those in Western Siskiyou County face a critical choice: invest in technologies that promise short-term convenience or commit to infrastructure that secures an unpredictable future. Russell Elliott, CEO of Siskiyou Telephone Company, argues passionately for the latter. Drawing from a recent interview, Elliott highlights how his company’s extensive fiber-optic network not only outperforms competitors like Starlink but also reinvests federal and state funds directly into the local economy—ensuring scalability for needs we can’t yet foresee, from AI-driven innovations to petabit-speed data transfers.
As the federal government allocates $42 billion through the BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) program to bridge the digital divide, Elliott questions the wisdom of funneling such funds into satellite systems like Starlink. “If I’m borrowing against my 10-year-old’s future by taking $42 billion of infrastructure money and putting that into Starlink,” he says, “what I’ve done is fund a network that’s international. I’m funding connectivity in other countries, and I’m not doing anything to help my local communities. And I’ve done nothing to ensure the future technical capability of my 10-year-old’s home here.” Fiber, he insists, is the only truly “future-proof” option, capable of handling unknown demands like augmented reality or massive AI computations that could require petabit-level speeds—far beyond what satellites can ever achieve.
Siskiyou Telephone’s Fiber Dominance in Rural California
